Posts Tagged ‘Red Wings’

I’m at the gate in New York waiting to fly back to Detroit. I’m working on my laptop and look next to me and there’s a guy that looks a lot like Yzerman next to me. I text this information to my friend Tom and he replies with “hero.”

That reply made sense. If you don’t know, Steve Yzerman was a great hockey player for the Detroit Red Wings. He was captain of the team for two decades, scored almost 700 goals, won three Stanley Cups and is basically a legend of Detroit sports lore. Great guy on and off the ice.

Could it be him? It made sense. He could also be going to Detroit (there were actually two flights to Detroit from New York in the same area), he was in New York where a lot of people go for business or for fun and he was about average size, which is true hockey-player size.

I watch as the Yzerman doppleganger walks to a nearby store and then lose track of his whereabouts for the next half hour. Finally, it’s time to board the plane and I head over to say hi to Dave, one of our clients at Cadillac. Dave has also seen the Yzerman clone and we launch into a discussion about whether it can be him.

Dave points out a key fact – the Yzerman twin has a small but noticeable scar on his face, a telltale sign of a possible connection to the rough-and-tumble sport of hockey. He also looks like he’s about the right age and size.

I’m not entirely convinced. You see, when sort-of Stevie Y walked over to the store, he sort of ambled over there casually. The Steve Yzerman I know would have walked with a purpose.

Anyway, it came time to board the plane and I stared down everybody walking on to that plane. No sign of maybe-Yzerman. I did the same drill when we got off the plane. No luck.

So maybe it wasn’t him. Or maybe, as Dave pointed out, it was him, but since he was at the airport, he could have been off to anywhere in the world.

One last thought: The Wings have struggled all year because of injuries. But since the Olympic break, they are red-hot and are hitting on all cylinders going into the playoffs. It’s on. It’s so on.